


He Lies so Still

by catsanddragons



Category: 2P Hetalia - Fandom, Hetalia: Axis Powers, Original Work
Genre: Crossroads Deals & Demons, Demons, Dubious Consent, M/M, Soul Selling, dead bodies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-17 07:59:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5860654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsanddragons/pseuds/catsanddragons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur would do anything for his little boy. Anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Lies so Still

The grass crackled under my feet like the fires of the increasingly distant houses as I walk away. Away from the warmth and into the gnawing night, away from the clean order; away from the smooth well used wood floors and into the crowd of hunched encroaching vines, each cloaked in the bodies of leaves, some dead some still hanging on: away from the comforting pitter patter of the house and into the rumbling scuttling of the forest.

Only Alfred is still, as the precious boy presses heavily onto my chest. Alfred who has never been still a day in his life before today. He was so still now, awkward limbs hanging limp, instead of grasping at my shirt to beg my attention, still forever- no not forever. I walk faster down the path burning through the forest, not forever. It's okay Alfred, I have you. Fabric crinkles under my hands as I tighten my grip. Just hold on a little longer.Just a little longer, this will work. This has to work, I'll do anything.

Another step forward, the curtain of my breath clears and the place is before me. The place of neither here nor there, a neutral zone, a gateway between the worlds.

Its apparent even to the untrained eye in the way the clearing stands out violently from the forest that grew up around it. There's soft green moss and dark brown bark behind me, and then a few inches ahead, as if along the line of an ax or a cookie cutter of some demented god green grass suddenly bursts up, swarming everything within the clearing, save a single island of stone in the center.

It looks exactly the same as it had when I was young, and will look the same long after I was gone. The stone in particular dark with the scars of old fires that had licked up its sides from the rage and frantic terror of the hundreds of humans who had desperately tried to tear it down. To shut the gateway, and it was ready to withstand hundreds more.

Suddenly, the fire consuming me snuffs out and my body is thick with exhaustion. I almost hesitate. Then the weight of the now freezing head bumps against my chest, urging me forward. And I fall stumbling, into the clearing.

The air shifts the instant I cross the threshold. It buzzes with forgotten rightfully forgotten things. The forest encircling me suddenly looms filled with twisting shadows, shapes, not of what is in the forest, but what is on the other other side of the clearing.

A gateway connects two places after all.

All at once, I am unsure of what to do. It had always been the one that approached me. Whenever I was here before it had either brought me here or been waiting for me, but the clearing was empty of everyone but me and Alfred. Alfred, my arms were starting to ache and there was no where else I could take him, so I bent down slowly and lay him, limp freezing limbs, on the vibrant green rug. He almost doesn't look like himself anymore,so still and pale and small. He's not there anymore. The only thing that's the same is his hair. That has not faded. Alfred who carried the sun in his hair and the sky in his eyes laying still so still. I will see his eyes open again, I will I will I will.

Then a familiar call slashed apart the silence. “Well I can't say I expected to see you here again Arthur.” I almost fall over, spinning around to come face to face with bright blue eyes, the same vibrant shade as a dart frog or the warning on a beetle's back. “It's been so long.” The demon purrs. “I am just so happy to have you back” It's smile is the same as it always was, drawn up high and wide over bone white teeth.

“ What have you been up to? “ Its eyes turn down and it fixes its gaze on Alfred body. Its smile stretches out further. “And who is this?” It coos at Alfred, voice coated with syrup and red.

“Alfred,” I croak out. “he is-was my son.”

“Oh and now he's all broken, poor thing.” I resist the urge to smack its hand away when it trails a finger over Alfred’s arm, the one still tilted at an unnatural angle.

“To be swatted down so quickly, so young and so wasted, that is sad, so terribly sad. Hmm but that is the fate of all little humans, the delicate little bugs that you all are.” It turns back to me, blatant hunger hiding behind its bright white teeth. “Arthur, my dear Arthur, you know how that distresses me so. The idea your soul would be wasted in that fragile shell of yours.”

“About that..”

“Oh! You aren't by chance here to take me up on my offer are you?” It was getting way too close now, rust mixing with a strange sweet smell.“ Because that would be just so lovely!”

No NO I'm not I will never, but instead of blurting out my usual response, my gaze is drawn back to Alfred, little Alfred, still and Matthew back at the house bound up with white bandages and shock and almost as horribly still as Alfred was now, as Francis had been before him after it had-

“Bring him back.” I intended to sound authoritative but all that came out was a frail plea. 

Its eyes seemed to expand in it head at my deviation from the script.

“Well that, that is quite a request.”

“I'll give you anything.” The realization of what I’m implying hits it, and its eyes and smile grow, seeming to expand until it's head is more of a skull than a face. 

“Well that changes things doesn't it. Quite a big commitment you're talking about here. Are you sure?” Not even a little bit but for Alfred..

“Just just bring him back please.” My heart seems like a cacophony even as silence consumes the clearing, and demon just stares at me.

“Me, my soul whatever you want, for Alfred, bring him back alive and whole, and Matthew, my other son, heal his injuries too.” Smiling, it was still, it was always smiling.Why couldn't it just stop smiling? “So are you going to take the deal or not?!” It seemed to jerk itself out of its fixation. 

“Of course I’ll take that deal, you just have no idea how long I've waited to hear those words.” It reaches out, a pale sharp hand, red coating it from self inflicted wounds on the palms and takes my hand. It sinks in and little jabs of pain lace up my arm as blood sows us together.

It's done, it's done, Alfred is going to be okay and I am, I am. My legs wobble, threatening to collapse in relief and something else. 

**Author's Note:**

> I genuinely dont know if this fic is a hetalia fic or a original fic about demons that started out as a hetalia fic.


End file.
